


Wonderland Made For Two

by Tricochet



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Christmas Magic, From a prompt, M/M, Mall Elf James, Retail Worker Winn, feel-good fic, holiday romance, winter prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 09:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13073658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tricochet/pseuds/Tricochet
Summary: James is less than happy with his winter job as a mall elf, but the cute guy from the tech shop across from him might change that.





	Wonderland Made For Two

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt
> 
> 18\. You're a salesperson and I'm the mall Santa/elf

James can’t believe Clark got him to do this. It’s his fault, though. He shouldn’t have betted against him on anything, and now he’s paying the price.

He’s wearing an elf costume and fake ears that don’t even match his skin tone. The obnoxiously colored shoes curl at the toe and nearly trip him. He feels totally ridiculous.

“It’s only for a few weeks,” Clark had told him. At that moment, James was wondering if he was even going to make it that long. 

A screaming child runs for the reindeer display. James runs after him to block his escape route. 

He steps in the kid’s way just before the child collides with a glitter reindeer.

“Watch out, sir. The reindeer don’t like to be touched. They’re… magic,” James says. The kid’s mother catches up to the child and picks him up, smiling at James. He salutes and runs back to take a picture of a toddler in the Santa’s lap.

The kid frowns and glares at James as the camera clicks. She’s wearing a gingerbread-patterned sweater, but doesn’t seem happy at all. James puts on his best smile and hands a printout of the picture to her father.

“That’s going to be one for the Christmas card,” he says to the father. The man laughs and thanks him. He holds his daughter’s hand, and James hands her a candy cane. For the first time, she smiles.

Some of the kids are sweet and happy to tell Santa what they want, but most of them are indifferent at best and malicious at worst. One of them isn’t even a child, it’s a dog. James has to politely tell the owner that it isn’t Pet Day, and to come back next Thursday. Another woman brings in a guinea pig. James doesn’t even know how the owners got the animals into the mall.

He sits down at his break and goes to order food from the food court. He still feels silly walking around in his ridiculous costume.

“How’s the elf salad?” a man asks. James chews around his cheap salad and looks at the man. He’s one of the salespeople at the tech store across from the Santa display. One of the cuter ones, James notes. 

“It’s good,” James says. “You excited for the holidays to be over?”

“Oh yeah,” the man says. “I want to go back to working IT. I just got roped into this for the season.”

“I ended up here because I lost a bet with my friend. But this gig at least uses some of my photography experience. I’m James,” James says.

“Winn,” the man says. “Honestly, I’ve just enjoyed flying the drones they have on exhibit. They’re fun to play with.”

“At least you get to wear real shoes,” James jokes. 

“Yeah. I’m feeling really lucky right now. How do you even walk in those?”

“I’m not sure. Every time I have to chase after a kid, I’m sure I’ll trip and fall down.”

“When that happens, I’ll be filming with my drone.”

“Thanks,” James says. “I bet Pet Day is going to be the time you want to film, though. It’s a recipe for disaster, a bunch of dogs running around getting pictures with Santa.”

“Sounds like a mess,” Winn agrees. 

“I hope not, since I’m the one who has to clean it. Do you happen to be selling any Roombas?” 

“Not unless I tie a broom to a plane,” Winn says. “Which I actually could do. It’s the most interesting thing to see what all I can make with just stuff from the store.”

“It’ll be worth a try. But the line closes early that day, so I’ll get to leave as soon as it’s clean, though.”

“How long are you going to be here?” Winn asks.

“Right up until Christmas Eve,” James tells him. “Then I’m out, and never looking at a reindeer again.”

“It’s the second week in January that I get to leave. Think you’ll be here tomorrow?” Winn asks.

“Yeah,” James says. 

Winn wishes him luck and goes back to his shift.

 

-

 

James meets Winn again several times over the next few weeks. They tend to eat at the same few places that actually serve edible food, and sometimes James sees Winn flying a drone over the crowd and doing flips to entertain the kids in line. James gets a little distracted too when he sees Winn talking to a customer. Something about him draws James to him. It might just be the similarities of their situations. He’s going to miss seeing the man when he leaves.

He’s so distracted that an infant’s flailing fists get two strikes in on his arm when he stands close to the parent holding him to take a picture. He doesn’t drop his camera, but he ruins the shot and has to take another one.

Winn laughs about it later that day. “Yeah, I could totally see it coming. You were just backing up closer and closer, and the baby was wiggling…”

“You could have warned me,” James says.

“How, yelled across the room not to take a step backward?”

“Fair point,” James says.

“Actually…” Winn says, and James turns to face him as he sips his smoothie. “I’ve been working on modifying some spare parts in the store. I made a little earpiece and microphone from some VR sets and a karaoke machine.”

“That’s impressive. You should be in the CIA or something, if you can do that.”

“Nah,” Winn says. “But I was wondering if you wanted to use them. So I could warn you next time.”

“Do you spend all of your time in the store watching me?” James jokes.

Evidently the joke was a little too much for Winn. He blushes bright red. “No. My job is mostly flying drones around, but flying them requires me to be aware of what’s going on around them.” 

“Yeah. I know. I was just teasing you,” James clarifies. “And that actually might be super helpful. I’d give it a try.” 

“Okay, let me go grab the set,” Winn says. James takes another gulp of smoothie and smiles at Winn. The man is just genuinely nice, and warm, and friendly.

Winn is back quickly and sets the technology in James’s hand. He has to slide his fake elf ear off to get it to stay, and then put it back on, but he can hear Winn’s voice through the earpiece.

“Do you read me?” Winn says into his own mic, even though James is sitting right next to him, and James thinks again that he should definitely be in a secret government agency with the way he talks. Or maybe he just watches too many movies where they say stuff like that.

“Yes,” James says, then tries to think of something spy-sounding to say. “Over.”

Winn laughs into his ear. James can’t help but wish that Winn was a little closer and he could hear Winn’s voice in his ear from his mouth, not a mini speaker.

“And there’s a bogey at your six o’clock. Your boss wants you for something,” Winn says into the device again. James smiles at him before he stands up.

“Yes, boss?” James says, turning.

“You ready for Pet Day? They’re going to start bringing the animals in in a few minutes.”

James had almost forgotten that that day was Pet Day. Winn laughs in his ear.

“Good luck, James.”

Winn chats to James as he reorganizes the reindeer to be less exposed to canine attacks. 

“So who was your friend who you lost the bet with?” Winn asks.

“That’s Clark. He bet me that he could eat 50 potstickers in one sitting. I was a fool to doubt him.”

“Wow,” Winn says. James frowns at how uncertain he sounds.

“And he’s fine, if you’re wondering,” James says. 

“Okay. I’m glad to hear that.”

Winn is silent for a moment before he starts talking again.

“Heads up! There’s a dog coming in.”

James turns and stares at the puppy. It’s radiating energy and running everywhere it can reach from the leash. James sighs and picks up his camera. Hopefully the bad dogs are all going to be first so they don’t get too antsy.

“Okay. Behind that terrier, there’s two older dogs. I don’t think they’ll be too much trouble.”  
“Okay. I don’t know why people make their pets take Santa pictures. Or why I have to be in costume for this. The animals don’t care if I have elf ears.”

James puts his smiley face on and leads the first owner and dog to Santa. It goes more quickly since Santa doesn’t have to ask the dog what it wants. Santa gives it a treat and it jumps into his lap. James takes a picture and the dog leaps away. He considers himself lucky that it didn’t turn out blurry.

“Move to the left!” Winn says in his ear, and James does. He looks around at where he’d been standing, and there’s a running Great Dane moving through it. The owner is being dragged along by the leash.

“Thanks,” James says, hoping the mic will pick it up. He runs after the Dane and helps get it under control with a toy.

“Anything for the mission,” Winn says. 

James lifts a guinea pig into its owner’s arms. The animals are almost as bad as kids.

All of the dogs look up as Winn flies a drone over them. A few jump up, trying to reach it, but Winn keeps it out of reach. 

James takes advantage of the distraction to get several more pictures taken. It’s going to be a long day.

 

-

 

Winn helps James sweep up dog hair residue, even though he doesn’t have to. It’s more than an hour before James’s shift usually ends that he can change out of his elf costume.

“What are you doing after work?” Winn asks conversationally.

“Ugh. Probably going to call Clark and yell at him for making me take this job.”

“I’m going to make a snow fort,” Winn says.

“A snow fort?” James says. “Where?”

“In the park. It’s going to be great.”

“By yourself?”

Winn shrugs. “Yeah. My best friend said she’d go with me, but her girlfriend just texted and said that she got stuck to a pole.”

“What?”

“I don’t know! Apparently she was trying to lick it and just… got stuck.”

James shakes his head. “Can you build it by yourself?”

Winn smiles. “I would certainly welcome some help.”

“Okay,” James says. “It’s going to be the best snow fort ever.”

“Hell yeah,” Winn says, zipping up his jacket and putting mittens on.

It’s not hard to find a clean patch of snow in the park. The trees are all coated with snow, and the blanket of snow on the ground is almost undisturbed.

“I feel like a marshmallow,” Winn says. His coat is totally swamping him. James thinks he looks adorable. “And my ears are cold.”

“This was your idea,” James says. He starts scooping up snow and piling it up into a wall. 

Winn takes the next side. The fort turns out to be impressive, with two layers of walls and enough room in the inner one for the two of them to stretch their legs out. 

Winn frowns. He’s standing on the far side of the tall inner wall and struggling to swing his leg over the wall. It’s the first time James has really noticed the height difference between them.

“How do I get over?” Winn calls. James laughs.

“Build a step,” James suggests.

Winn starts piling snow up. It only gets him another few inches. James reaches out to him and helps him over. 

Winn is pretty lightly built, and James steadies him as he jumps. Winn’s boots are almost on the ground when James’s left foot finds a patch of ice and he slides backwards. Winn lands on top of him with a grunt.

“Sorry!” James says. There’s two layers of coats between them, but their faces are uncomfortably close. James would stand up, but Winn is still sort of pinning him down. He can see every detail of Winn’s face.

“Oh!” Winn says suddenly, like he’d been frozen. “Uh, I’m gonna try to get up now.”

“Alright,” James says. Winn starts wiggling, trying to get his feet back on the ground. He manages to sit up and move off of James.

He offers James his hand. James takes it and sits up too, leaning his back against one of the walls. 

At last Winn speaks. “How am I going to get out?”

 

-

 

James finds himself less and less excited for the holidays to end by Christmas Eve. Maybe he’s getting into the holiday spirit a little more, or maybe he just doesn’t want to part ways with the cute guy who works at the tech store. Either way, he puts his elf shoes on in good spirits.

He waves to Winn. Winn smiles back.

“You excited for the holiday?” he asks through the earpiece he’s taken to wearing.

“Yeah,” Winn says. “Kara’s going to be having a party at her apartment.”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Probably playing video games.”

“Nice. Honestly, I’ll be watching seasonal comedies and sobbing at the end,” James says. 

“Which one are you thinking?”

“I’m going to start with Mall Cop, given where I’m working.”

“I haven’t seen that in so many years,” Winn says wistfully.

“You could watch it with me,” James blurts out.

“Sure!” Winn says. 

James is glad that he’s not making eye contact with Winn, since he’s a little redder than usual. He’s pretty sure Winn is into guys, but he doesn’t have a clue if Winn likes him that way. Planning to watch holiday movies at his apartment sounds a little bit like a date to him, but if Winn doesn’t initiate anything, James sure won’t.

James smiles as the first children of the day walk into the mall. They don’t look as tired yet as they tend to later in the day. One of them insists on taking a picture with James too. His mom has to take it. 

“At your six o’clock,” Winn says, and James turns in time to intercept a shoe being thrown. He hands it back to the father. 

“I’m scared of Santa,” a little girl tells him. 

“He’s a really friendly guy,” James tells her. “You’ll love him.”

“He’s big,” she says. She sounds uncertain.

“That’s from how much magic he has,” James tells her. She stares at him but nods anyway. Her picture is awkward, but her parents look proud enough.

A teenager who doesn’t look like he wants to be there refuses to sit in Santa’s lap. He stands next to the chair to appease his parents. James tells him that it made his parents really happy. He cracks a smile.

He keeps thinking about Winn and what his taste in movies might be. James knows that he’s a fan of sci-fi and nerdy stuff, but the classic Christmas movies tend to be set on Earth.

He directs the line back past a stand selling some new toy and sees a drone floating next to him. He waves to it.

Two twins jump into Santa’s lap and almost push the chair backwards. James takes a picture of them giggling as Santa pretends to think he’s seeing double.

Winn flies a different drone and makes it do a flip.

“Woah,” Winn says in James’s ear. “Remind me to never do a flip in VR mode again.”

“You gonna throw up?” James asks. 

“Nah, I’ll be fine. Uh, I just noticed there’s a kid behind you with a stick. Who lets their kid just pick a stick off the ground and drag it into the mall?”

James turns in time to stop the stick from hitting him in the shin and smiles up at Winn.

 

-

 

“I can’t believe they all bailed on us!” Winn says. Everybody else had made excuses and left Winn and James to clean up.

James shrugs, still wearing his elf suit. “It’s the holidays. Besides, isn’t it fun to be in a Christmas display? It’s so pretty. I’ve gotten great pictures. Let me take one of you.”

Winn agrees after a brief pause and stands next to a reindeer. James snaps a picture, and then throws some of the fake snow in the air for another one.

“Let’s do one where we’re on the sleigh!” Winn says. James sets up his tripod to delay taking the shot and sits next to Winn. Technically, not even the Santa was supposed to be up there, but James doesn’t care. James throws more snow over them as the camera flashes.

“Can I take one of you?” Winn asks, and James nods. Winn seems to have steady enough hands to not drop the camera since he spends all day flying drones.

“Just point the little screen and click,” James says. He poses in the doorway to the gingerbread house.

“I actually got something for you,” Winn says. He goes to grab a box.

“It’s a drone modified for photography. I thought you might could use it.”

“Aww, thank you!” James says. “That’s so nice. I got you a new hat since yours didn’t keep your ears warm. It has little elves on it.”

Winn laughs as James finds it in his locker. “That’s the cutest thing ever!”

He pulls it on over his ears. It covers them up and comes to a point like a true elf hat.

“Want to go look inside the gingerbread house?” James asks, pulling the door open.

Winn follows him inside. It’s made for children, but the decorations and TV screen are cute.

“Look!” Winn says. “It’s playing The Grinch!”

James sits down on a sleigh beanbag chair, and Winn sits next to him, almost on his lap. The movie doesn’t have sound, and it’s already most of the way done, but James smiles anyway. 

They sing along until the end. Winn somehow knows all the words and can actually sing well.

The movie ends, and James pulls Winn up to look in the other rooms. They both have to duck to fit through the doorway. 

The room is a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. There’s a tree in the middle with brightly colored boxes under it. Logically, James knows that they’re empty, but something about the bows is just enticing. Every type of ornament James had ever seen is on the tree, and the skirt is green velvet with red ribbons.

“Oh! There’s a little train!” Winn says, looking at the miniature railroad going around the tree.

James bends down to get a picture of it as it goes through the snowy landscape past the tiny farmhouses. “Look at the North Pole!”

“I can’t believe they let children in here,” Winn says. “Some of this stuff looks so fragile. See all those snowglobes?”

James looks at the shelf with the hundreds of different snowglobes. He picks one up and shakes it.

James looks into the next room. “They have a little Nutcracker clockwork display. And, woah. I think you step in through here.”

Winn follows him and gasps too. “Is this like a simulation of being inside a snowglobe?”

“It must be. It looks like real snow,” James says. “It’s so pretty.”

“Why haven’t I come in here before?” Winn wonders aloud.

“I don’t know. It’s wonderful.” 

“It’s like magic in here,” Winn says, and James can feel it too.

James steps closer to him. The train lets out a whistle in the background. Music is playing outside somewhere.

Winn looks up at him with wide eyes. James sees a rim of color around the irises that he’s never noticed before. 

Winn leans up to kiss him. James almost laughs at how far down he is in height, but then Winn’s eyelashes are tickling his cheek, and Winn’s hand is touching the back of his neck, and he feels Winn kiss him. 

It doesn’t take long for James to respond. He tilts his head down and sets his hand under Winn’s chin. He shuts his eyes. He can hear Winn breathing lightly. He pulls back to switch sides and his nose brushes Winn’s. 

James can feel Winn smile. He turns his head a little and Winn’s head naturally moves with him. 

Winn pulls back and rests his forehead against James’s. James opens his eyes to see Winn still smiling up at him.

“Merry Christmas, Winn,” James says.

“Merry Christmas to you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a fun feel-good fic, but I hope you enjoyed reading it!


End file.
